Eels can win the comp, says Grothe

Parramatta winger Eric Grothe has declared the Eels can go all the way and win the NRL competition.

Grothe's bold prediction comes as superstar teammate Nathan Hindmarsh admitted he'd written the season off following the nightmare start to the year under former coach Brian Smith.
Just three weeks ago, Grothe raised eyebrows when he suggested the Eels could finish in the top four, even though they weren't even in the top eight at the time.

But having snuck into fourth spot on for and against, Grothe believes the Eels can continue their momentum all the way through to grand final day.

"Yeah, definitely," Grothe told AAP when asked if they could win the premiership.

"If we get into the finals and we're in it, anything can happen.

"If you keep winning then you keep winning, that's our goal."

Grothe was confident a home semi-final was a realistic goal even a month ago.

"We were aiming for (top four) but it's always nice to get in there," he said.

"It was one of our goals so it wasn't a great surprise.

"All I said was that if we keep winning, anything can happen and we kept winning and it happened.

"I'm pretty happy that's how it turned out because it doesn't make me look (foolish)."

Hindmarsh revealed he had given up on semi-final football after a disastrous 2-8 start to the season.

"To tell you the truth, I was thinking off season, I was thinking trips away, where I'm going on holidays type of thing," Hindmarsh said.

"That's how bad it actually felt at one stage, we thought our season was over.

"We were looking at the table and we were sitting on six points or eight points, we were coming second last.

"It's a massive turnaround for us."

The Test backrower said there was a remarkable turnaround in morale after stringing together eight consecutive wins.

"Obviously we were well down," Hindmarsh said.

"We were turning up to training, it was just pretty much getting in and getting home.

"Now we are turning up, we're enjoying our training and enjoying each other's company and enjoying playing footy together."

The 26-year-old, who pinpointed the Eels' gritty round 17 away win against Canberra as the turning point for the season, said he was desperate to play finals football after missing out last year through injury.

"I'm another year older and one less year I'm playing in the NRL and less chance of winning a grand final," he said.

"If we get to the semis I'm going to really enjoy it because you don't know when it will happen again."

Asked how long the Eels could continue their winning streak, Hindmarsh said: "Good question - hopefully the rest of the season would be good.

"We've hit a bit of a purple patch and I think everyone's waiting for the bubble to burst.

"We've just got to keep our heads on and try and win each game as it comes.

"Everyone wrote us off at the start of the season and really didn't care too much for us.

"We're ignoring all the hype we're getting at the moment and just concentrating on each game."